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Cliff Sowers says:

During the height of the pandemic, my local JOANN only allowed a certain amount of people in the store at a time, and they had a waiting line in the parking lot all day every day. That enthusiasm seems to have evaporated, but there are still 10-20 cars in the parking lot at any given moment.

The problem with JOANN is that it's a [Jack-of-all-Master-of-none] sort of store.

Yes, they have a great selection of fabric, but how much revenue could they possibly be generating from quilters?

If you absolutely need a paintbrush right this minute, yeah you can go get one at JOANN, but the selection is minimal, expensive, and low quality. They don't stock what I would consider to be artist level supplies. In fact, the art supplies at JOANN are a joke which is odd because they label themselves as a craft store – arguably their weakest inventory. If you need a specific pen, paint color, or other specific art supply, they probably don't have it. Very, very basic stuff that you could buy at Walmart or Target at a cheaper price.

They do a great job with framing – I had a big map framed, and even with a 50% discount it was $400. It is beautiful and one of my best investments ever; however, I believe they sub-contract out a lot of framing jobs, so they probably are not making much revenue there either.

They also do sewing well, but at my local JOANN store Viking actually leases, provides employees, and operates the entire sewing area. If Viking leaves, I'm not sure what would be left of JOANN that you couldn't buy at any other store. Most of the store is just cheap decorations and knick-knacks.

The problem with brick-and-mortar stores is they are scared to purchase inventory, compete against online retailers like Amazon, and risk having that inventory sit on the shelf for more than a quarter and have it show as a loss on financial reports. The irony however is that the only way brick-and-mortar stores can stay alive is to put product on the shelves. The problem for me with JOANN is that fear of competition has led them to stocking very few products, and the products they do stock are just cheap garbage. JOANN has trained me not to go to their store anymore. When I want to spend money in your store but I can't because your store sucks, you really can't blame that on changing consumer habits.

I would happily spend my money in a JOANN store rather than Amazon, but JOANN simply doesn't stock quality arts and craft supplies.

hardlyb says:

My wife and one of my daughters do a lot of sewing, and I've been to Joann's many times over the years, and they've always looked like that. And they can go from dead to busy in an instant, too.

Lovelyforlife1 says:

They are thriving in our area. They always have sales that us not the sign. Big stores will close low performing stores. That is normal.

Scott P says:

I've been in several JoAnn stores and I've never seen one like the second one.The one near where I live is always fairly busy, and if I had a criticism of it it would be not enough people cutting fabric. I've also ordered fabric from them online because with Amazon you don't always get what's advertised. If I have a coupon JOANN's price is not much different, and I always know I will get what I ordered. I do a lot of fabric dyeing and the quality of fabric is just better.

Kathe Campomanes says:

I worked at JoAnn from 2018 to 2021. I worked through Covid and the rise of ship from store sales. I also was “lent out” and worked at several locations in the DFW metroplex so I saw many stores. Some store managers focused on the tidiness of their stores while others struggled with enough man power to get product on the shelves. Pre Covid there were plans to update the stores, but those plans were pushed way back. I think they may have found that remodeling their already packed store while keeping it running is impossible. In my area I know of 2 locations where they opened a brand new store and closed the old store nearby.

Галичанка🇺🇦 says:

The Joann's closest to me is doing fine, pretty clean and organized. I often see two ladies working in the fabric dept and there's often a line of people waiting to get their lengths of fabric cut.